To introduce my "Theoretic Sociology", I would like to invite you to read my fourth forward for this book in 2013. "Theoretic sociology" in its own area of especialization is a work based on a newly formalized and synthetized models to eplain how a theory can be structured, criticized, and restructured. Here is my fourth forward to: Theoretic sociology
Theoretical Sociology is a set of experiences and instructions I’ve learned either through attending my professor’s classes for quite some time or through the study of their works. The book is the result of my frequent readings and re-readings of the greatest theoreticians of sociology as well as my personal efforts to rearrange and reset what Merton called for the first time “the theoretical sociology”- though slightly different in content. The regulations and elements are depicted from the works of great sociologists and then rearranged in a new style. This explains why and how any version of this book abrogates the previous editions. So I apologise my readers for this abolishment while asking for their careful and serious consideration of the changes in this edition.
Morally speaking I owe to those great figures like Marx, Engels, Mead, Blumer, Fromm, Gurvitch, Merton, etc. I’ve learned from them that in order to understand the reality, no version could be considered as the ultimate one. So, there should be an updated version to perceive reality to add and drop some statements so as not to be disloyal to my understanding of reality and convey them honestly to others.
During this process , I’ve learned from Marx and Engels to have courage enough to declare, ”I’ve not known yet” or “ I’ve not understood yet”. I’ve learned from Mead and Blumer that the reality indeed includes those days in the past generations that we have spent our days and ways in terms of meaningful symbols for life. I’ve learned from Fromm that life is an effort to love the beauty and its truth which exists in everything that is to be seen and not to be ignored. I’ve learned from Gurvitch the way out of Hegel to the route of holistic world . I’ve learned from Merton and Blumer the courage to criticize the clichés – like mythological beliefs that blocking the mind from a better understanding of truth in universities.
One of the instructions I’ve got from my professors is to understand the fact that human’s thought unconsciously obeys the rules and regulations in the same way that the sociology of knowledge puts stress. However, it settles at the core of the unconscious mind to emerge in a familiar or an unfamiliar way. In this sense, I’ve learned many points from these figures:
From Dewey , Mead and Blumer that humankind has always thought practically and pragmatically and has lived this way.
From Marx, Weber and Blumer that humankind inevitably looks at the world through the the ideal types.
From Gurvitch, Foulkier, Berger, Blumer, Lauer, and many others that humankind investigates the world within a dialectical framework. This is called multi-methodological dialectics.
From Blumer and Campeizi(?) that humankind reproduces a life-world which her ancestors had made through a retrospective experience.
From Fromm how dependence and presumption can simply take the place of love and understanding lacking awareness and to know how much this perception requires exactitude, contemplation and concentration to recognise reality from illusion or existence from fancy.
From Durkheim ,Weber, Blumer ,Gurvitch, Merton, Collins, Boudon, Bourricaud, ...., that any thought and hence, any theory has a fixed regulation. The initial aim of science and ours as well, is thus to detect the regulations of the theoretical sociology.
7-And finally from my mystical master that there is a distance from education to practice, from knowledge to vision, from will to way, from dream to reality.
Thus, theoretical sociology seeks to discover the rules included in the sixth item through the first five mentioned above. My first experience with this book refers to 1995 in my introduction to schools and theories. Then my initial efforts leads to the 2003 publication of TheoreticalSociology. The second edition of the book in 2007 consisted little change due to the urgent need to get it published. The third edition in 2010 , however, included more important changes that made it a totally different work. I had to review my professors’ works and re- read them . This effort ultimately led to the fourth edition of the book in 2013 in which the framework and internal elements changed. Due to the need for a self- review and re-reading my masters’ notions, the fourth edition was released in 2012 that made changes to the structure and internal elements of the book.
Based on my experiences in teaching theoretical sociology in different academic levels , I advise a careful study of the initial chapters of the first part of the book to BA students. However, depending on the graduate and Ph-D students’ various backgrounds, the book on the whole, seems structurally helpful for their theoretical needs.
I hope the readers of this edition help me- even a student who seeks for an understanding of the reality or the existence of being, with their critical points so as to empower me in adjusting my attitude toward theoretical sociology as well.
I also express my gratitude to Bahman- Borna Publications for the contribution of the fourth rearrangement and publication of the book.
On Theoretic Sociology
To introduce my "Theoretic Sociology", I would like to invite you to read my fourth forward for this book in 2013. "Theoretic sociology" in its own area of especialization is a work based on a newly formalized and synthetized models to eplain how a theory can be structured, criticized, and restructured. Here is my fourth forward to: Theoretic sociology
Theoretical Sociology is a set of experiences and instructions I’ve learned either through attending my professor’s classes for quite some time or through the study of their works. The book is the result of my frequent readings and re-readings of the greatest theoreticians of sociology as well as my personal efforts to rearrange and reset what Merton called for the first time “the theoretical sociology”- though slightly different in content. The regulations and elements are depicted from the works of great sociologists and then rearranged in a new style. This explains why and how any version of this book abrogates the previous editions. So I apologise my readers for this abolishment while asking for their careful and serious consideration of the changes in this edition.
Morally speaking I owe to those great figures like Marx, Engels, Mead, Blumer, Fromm, Gurvitch, Merton, etc. I’ve learned from them that in order to understand the reality, no version could be considered as the ultimate one. So, there should be an updated version to perceive reality to add and drop some statements so as not to be disloyal to my understanding of reality and convey them honestly to others.
During this process , I’ve learned from Marx and Engels to have courage enough to declare, ”I’ve not known yet” or “ I’ve not understood yet”. I’ve learned from Mead and Blumer that the reality indeed includes those days in the past generations that we have spent our days and ways in terms of meaningful symbols for life. I’ve learned from Fromm that life is an effort to love the beauty and its truth which exists in everything that is to be seen and not to be ignored. I’ve learned from Gurvitch the way out of Hegel to the route of holistic world . I’ve learned from Merton and Blumer the courage to criticize the clichés – like mythological beliefs that blocking the mind from a better understanding of truth in universities.
One of the instructions I’ve got from my professors is to understand the fact that human’s thought unconsciously obeys the rules and regulations in the same way that the sociology of knowledge puts stress. However, it settles at the core of the unconscious mind to emerge in a familiar or an unfamiliar way. In this sense, I’ve learned many points from these figures:
7-And finally from my mystical master that there is a distance from education to practice, from knowledge to vision, from will to way, from dream to reality.
Thus, theoretical sociology seeks to discover the rules included in the sixth item through the first five mentioned above. My first experience with this book refers to 1995 in my introduction to schools and theories. Then my initial efforts leads to the 2003 publication of Theoretical Sociology. The second edition of the book in 2007 consisted little change due to the urgent need to get it published. The third edition in 2010 , however, included more important changes that made it a totally different work. I had to review my professors’ works and re- read them . This effort ultimately led to the fourth edition of the book in 2013 in which the framework and internal elements changed. Due to the need for a self- review and re-reading my masters’ notions, the fourth edition was released in 2012 that made changes to the structure and internal elements of the book.
Based on my experiences in teaching theoretical sociology in different academic levels , I advise a careful study of the initial chapters of the first part of the book to BA students. However, depending on the graduate and Ph-D students’ various backgrounds, the book on the whole, seems structurally helpful for their theoretical needs.
I hope the readers of this edition help me- even a student who seeks for an understanding of the reality or the existence of being, with their critical points so as to empower me in adjusting my attitude toward theoretical sociology as well.
I also express my gratitude to Bahman- Borna Publications for the contribution of the fourth rearrangement and publication of the book.
H.A.Tanhaie
Karaj
Spring 2013
hatanhai@yahoo.com